The 2026 Guide To Buying Concert Tickets: Navigating Ticketmaster, presales and resales

There is definitely a difference between the two which I will try to explain. Verified resale means Ticketmaster originally distributed the tickets and will regenerate the tickets with new barcodes when resold, invalidating the original purchaser's ticket. These appear as red dots on the interactive map and as Verified Resale on the sidebar.  If the listing only says Resale without the verified qualifier then chances are Ticketmaster was never the primary seller and they were originally sold on a different platform.   If Ticketmaster's resale divisions is still getting listings from resellers, they will create the event page, sell the tickets and collect the fees regardless of it was originally a Ticketmaster event. Seat numbers may be hidden, not guaranteed and specific locations not shown on interactive map. Try to find the original listing via the band's confirmed website or social media and see if the primary seller still has tickets available. You can also price comp...

 TL/DR = Don't send money to strangers for tickets! PERIOD! NO AI WAS USED. All grammatical, spelling and syntax errors are entirely my own. While working on future entries on how to buy aftermarket tickets for sold out shows here is what not to do. Could have also titled it the Kenya Scam Mafia.  This is an opinion piece. And that opinion with some supporting material is never send money to strangers for tickets. Until a real journalist gets involved and gets quotable material from executives at Reddit and Meta and other affected parties this will have to suffice. I do not consider myself a writer or reporter by any means. I probably should have worked a little more on this but felt an urgency to publish immediately. Or maybe not publish at all because most people know better and also this might serve as a how to guide. Probably overkill. But I wanted to share a bit more what I learned on how these scams operate. It's organized crime. Even if you don't read I strongly urge...

Never buy off the first Google search result. Or Yahoo. Or DuckDuckGo. Or AltaVista.  Never buy tickets off Reddit, Ticktock, Facebook, X, Twitter or even Craigslist. This really deserves a much longer post but if you don't wanna wait for it, just send your money and see what happens. Never buy more tickets than you are going to use yourself Never front people tickets unless you can afford to treat them or give them away, usually to someone else. Never look at the prices after you buy. Never buy parking off Stubhub or any secondary marketplace. Look for a site dedicated to parking such as Spothero, but don't ask me any more about it, unless I am taking my girlfriend I just take the bus. Paid parking? That's more money for concert tickets. 

NEVER GOOGLE TICKETS AND BUY OFF THE FIRST SEARCH RESULT.  Even if you only click and skim a bit, we want to hammer that point home as many times and in as many ways as possible. This is the biggest mistake any ticket buyer can make.  You find out your favorite band is coming to town so you google tickets, click on the first link, see the tickets are kind of pricey but aren't they all? You click through all the prompts and buy without reading. Then you find out tickets actually cost a fraction of what you paid or aren't even on sale yet. And that you may not get them until the day of the show. What you really have is the promise of a ticket shrouded behind a vague and highly conditional guarantee, that may only result in a refund if you don't get the tickets as you are standing by the gate watching everyone else go in.  Probably the first and most important point I want to make before I get into the deeper details of buying concert tickets is you should never just use Goo...

 GLOSSARY OF TERMS (this is a work in progress, feel free to make suggestions) Primary: The official band and/or venue approved seller of tickets such as Ticketmaster, AXS, Dice or Etix. Secondary: Refers to any resale ticket. When a ticket is purchased on the primary, it's the first sale. Any subsequent sales, either via an exchange or privately is the second sale (and sometimes third and fourth, etc) Exchanges: Reselling sites such as Stubhub, Tickpick or VividSeats. Some primary sellers also resell tickets. Scalper: Originally a slang term and often considered a slur, it's been standardized by the public to apply to all resale. However it most often refers to the people selling tickets outside the event.  Act / Artist / Performer / Band / Event / Tour: the entity you are purchasing tickets for. I tend to use them all interchangably but I prefer to use act as I am not going to wade into whether or not what Insane Clown Posse does is art. I think it is but some may disagree. ...

  Some commentary on the new catch phrase taking hold in discussions on concerts and ticketing. Keep in mind most of what the average person thinks they know about concert ticketing is total fantasy. But a with lot of first hand experience I do not consider myself the one spewing total drivel but also I am far outnumbered and have found it's primarily an emotional discussion.  Blue dot fever is the new term but those of us following concerts have often referred to the sea of blue dots when gauging demand. I kinda like it because I caught blue dot fever nearly 5 years ago when I not only stopped buying tickets for resale but stopped buying advance tickets altogether. More people are buying more tickets at higher prices than ever, it's just that 95% of the artists who ever existed are on tour right now. There are going to be winners and losers. It's always been this way, it's just we are hitting an economic slump and everyone can see the results right in fro...

 ***NEVER BUY TICKETS OFF THE FIRST GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS***  I just had to put that first and I will explain why in a future chapter.  NO AI WAS USED IN CRAFTING ANY OF THIS TEXT This is an introduction / pre introduction to a book project I abandoned last fall.  This started out as a collaborate commercial endeavor late last year. The gaps were going to be filled in by an English major at Berkeley with a little assistance from her sister. They both still fight and usually win the Ticketmaster wars for the major touring acts who instantly sell out. We're talking Ariana Grande and BTS. This is my weakest point as I no longer engage in that activity, and also would take it as a personal failure if I charged someone "less than the cost of a Ticketmaster service fee" and the customer still didn't get Metallica Sphere tickets. Unfortunately she was pulled off the project by her mother who said "I will just help," and that help of course never materialized. Turns...

I am an obsessive music fanatic of over 40 years who has attended thousands of concerts spending an untallied fortune possibly equal to a house at pre pandemic prices.  First it was a vehicle for escapism, not just the few events I could actually attend but thru trading concert tapes (also known as "bootlegs") to recreate the concert experience in my own head since age 14, then in a career reselling tickets to fund my own habit and now because I just don't know what to do with myself.  I once went to 258 in a single year though last year it was only 130. After seeing almost everyone possible I just want to go to any show on a regular basis for the lowest possible price and now ready to share some of my strategies. After constantly reading anything related to ticketing on social media and message boards and even in discussions with friends often calling for advice, I realize there is a lot of confusion related to concert tickets. Where and when to buy while ensuring you do...